Why Alton Brown Is Against Food Trends

Good Eats has finished its long and illustrious television run, but Alton Brown still tops our list of culinary crushes. My parents had Julia Child and The Frugal Gourmet on television to teach them how to cook; my generation had AB. Recently he's spoken up against food trends, including fancy food terms like Slow Food and molecular gastronomy, and for a very good reason. Any guesses as to why he's directed that famous scowl towards food trends?

Alton Brown has invested a lot of time and talent into cooking — not just to make a buck or because he had a TV show, but because he genuinely cares about us learning how to cook properly. He wants to help us figure out the science behind what's happening in the kitchen, to make us better understand the whys and hows of what happens in the kitchen. But you all knew that — it's why we love him so.

At his blog he recently talked about the food movements that rise up, and the popularity and celebrity status that come with new food techniques or labels. Specifically he looks at molecular gastronomy and Slow Food, both terms we're familiar with around these parts (though they are radically different from each other).

Alton believes that the popularity and labeling of such things creates cooks who are less interested in the more "basic" skills of cooking. That even though someone has altered the physical state of an ingredient and turned cheese into powder or smoked something that isn't normally smoked, that this new breed of chef who is label-driven is more interested in the cool tricks and less concerned with the proper cooking of an egg.

What do you have to say? Do you think these exotic movements are creating a group of people who are overlooking the basics? Or is Alton just feeling cranky? Share your thoughts in the comments below.